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Political Palooka: Obama Gags On Gitmo Question
The Post Chronicle ^ | July 3, 2008 | Daniel Clark

Posted on 07/03/2008 3:42:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The handling of Barack Obama calls to mind a movie called The Harder They Fall, in which Humphrey Bogart played a boxing promoter whose client was a heavyweight named Toro Moreno. Bogey learned early on that Toro couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag, but that didn't stop him from guiding the palooka to a shot at the world title.

Likewise, the Democrats, and therefore the news media, declared Obama to be a future presidential nominee at the 2004 convention, despite the fact that he was only a state senator at the time. Like the chiseled Toro, Obama is superficially impressive, but he simply doesn't have the tools to back up his image.

Lately, the presumptive Democrat candidate has demonstrated his unfitness for high office on a daily basis, through statements that betray his failure to think seriously about serious matters. One of the more egregious examples came in praise of the Supreme Court's decision, in Boumediene v. Bush, to extend habeas corpus rights to enemy combatants captured on foreign soil.

Obama likened the prospect of terrorists in American courtrooms to the Nuremberg trials, lecturing that we even gave the Nazis their "day in court." This illustration holds true only in stick-figure form, in that each situation involves putting our wartime enemies on trial. Once even the tiniest amount of detail is added, it creates two dramatically contrasting pictures.

For starters, the Nuremberg trials did not commence until after the war had ended. In fact, the legal underpinning of those proceedings was the power that had been ceded to the Allies as a result of Germany's unconditional surrender. There were no concerns about the defendants returning to the battlefield to kill Americans and our allies.

While it's literally true that the Nazis had their "day in court," that doesn't mean they had what Americans would recognize as a fair trial. Those hearings were held not to determine whether the Germans were guilty, but only to demonstrate their already understood guilt to the rest of the world. Not only weren't the defendants allowed a presumption of innocence, but they were forbidden from making some of the most persuasive arguments in their defense, including the objection that they were being tried under ex post facto law.

The Nazis were not subject to American civilian courts. Their trials were held in their own country, under a newly created legal paradigm. If our current war has any fitting parallel to Nuremberg, it is the conviction and execution of Saddam Hussein, but you don't see Obama holding that up as a model of justice.

Just imagine what the five liberal members of the Court might have done if they'd heard an appeal from Goering, Hess, Jodl and company. Obviously not deterred by the fact that the Constitution gives them no say in the matter, they would have invented a justification to overturn Nuremberg before you could say "penumbra."

After our German enemies received their "day in court," 22 of them were swiftly executed. Ten of these had been sentenced by the International Military Tribunal, which had been convened cooperatively among the Allied powers. The other 12 were sentenced in subsequent trials held in the same courtrooms, by United States military tribunals.

Surely, Obama does not want to subject our terrorist detainees to a similar process. As for the liberal Supreme Court majority, they would undoubtedly find that "evolving standards of decency" dictate a different outcome. Justice Stephen Breyer – who proudly admits to basing some decisions on foreign precedent – might even champion the "just following orders" defense, based on past rulings from within the Third Reich itself.

For all of the senator's flowery rhetoric, the thought processes that underlie it are really quite crude. He must have known for hours that he'd be asked about the Boumediene decision, and still his analysis never developed beyond the liberal basics (Nazis bad, Nuremberg good; terrorists not so bad, Gitmo not so good).

If Obama doesn't meet the same fate as Toro, it's only due to the lack of a formidable opponent. Still, this would only delay the inevitable. He will be in no condition to tangle with Congress, to say nothing of our foreign enemies, until he has at least proven himself capable of reasonably answering a question he should have anticipated. If that day doesn't arrive in a hurry, the American people should thank him to stay within the cozy confines of his wet paper bag, and out of the Oval Office.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2008; election; elections; enemycombatant; foreignpoliicy; gitmo; judiciary; obama; scotus; wot
Senator Barack Obama really doesn't know what he's talking about, does he? How utterly dangerous for us and the rest of the world. It's like electing Gumby president!
1 posted on 07/03/2008 3:42:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
IN A TIME OF WAR JOHN MCCAIN SERVED AND SUFFERED FOR HIS COUNTRY.



WHILE BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA SERVED HIMSELF...AND STILL DOES.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON, BUT DON'T WANT

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA


NOBAMA '08 SIGHTED IN EMMETT, ID, JULY 2ND, 2008

2 posted on 07/03/2008 3:43:26 PM PDT by Jeff Head
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Obama is an Obuffoon.
3 posted on 07/03/2008 3:44:02 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (Congress in session, the White House occupied - Your freedom, liberty and rights are in jeopardy.)
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To: RetiredArmy

We’ll see how this works out. I know lots of people here were hoping for him to beat Hillary in the primaries, thinking he would be an easier general election opponent. He may be a good politician in some ways, but he’s got some problems that the primary campaign only scratched the surface of.


4 posted on 07/03/2008 3:45:41 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Political Palooka: Obama Gags On Gitmo Question
Lately, the presumptive Democrat candidate has demonstrated his unfitness for high office on a daily basis, through statements that betray his failure to think seriously about serious matters.

Anybody who can spend 20 years sitting in a pew listening to Jeremiah Wright posture and rant has to have mush for brains; that, or a level of ambition and arrogance that is off the scale...

5 posted on 07/03/2008 3:47:53 PM PDT by snarks_when_bored
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama does have a glass jaw. Unfortunately, McCain’s punches seem to land everywhere else but there.


6 posted on 07/03/2008 3:52:08 PM PDT by Argus (Obama: All turban and no goats.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Likewise, the Democrats, and therefore the news media, declared Obama to be a future presidential nominee at the 2004 convention, despite the fact that he was only a state senator at the time. Like the chiseled Toro, Obama is superficially impressive, but he simply doesn’t have the tools to back up his image.

-—BTTT!!!!


7 posted on 07/03/2008 3:57:46 PM PDT by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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To: Argus
Rest assured that McCain's punches soon will have Obama wish he was in the wood shed getting a normal spanking. With Steve “the bullet” Schmidt taking over as campaign head, we may see Obama down for the count before he gets to the convention.
8 posted on 07/03/2008 4:02:14 PM PDT by jonrick46
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“..thinking he would be an easier general election opponent.”

He would be an easier general election opponent to many conservative politicians but not necessarily to McPain. The two are almost one-of-a-kind in the crazy section.


9 posted on 07/03/2008 4:10:34 PM PDT by 353FMG (What marxism and fascism could not destroy, liberalism did.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Down Goes Obama! Down Goes Obama! Down Goes Obama!

I "hope."

10 posted on 07/03/2008 4:18:22 PM PDT by Fundamentally Fair (If given a choice between a POW and a POS, I'll take the POW.)
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To: 353FMG
The two are almost one-of-a-kind in the crazy section.

Pathetic thinking

11 posted on 07/03/2008 4:21:32 PM PDT by maine-iac7 (No trees were killed in sending this message but a large number of electrons were terrible agitated)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Obama's endless gaffes have been given a pass by the media, who are his biggest supporters. That won't save him. Maybe in 1978, when the 3 TV networks and a few news magazines and big-city newspapers basically controlled 'the news' and could shield a candidate from being exposed as a lightweight, dangerous leftist and promote him 24/7 as the Messiah of modern politics. Not any more. Oh, they'll try. But the 'alternative media' will note Obama's every dumb comment and false move. By election day, although the usually-apathetic voting public will probably think Obama is 'different', they'll feel uneasy about him (with good reason) and vote for John McCain.

Now, I don't think McCain is a conservative and I may not vote for him but as long as the ultra-liberal Barack H.Obama is defeated, I'll be somewhat content, if not really satisfied.

Obama may have thrilled the leftists that seem to control the Democrat primary elections and made Chris Matthew's leg tingle but in the general election, Obama's quick, late and all-too convenient swing to the political 'middle' won't fool many for long. He's a far-left lightweight with no experience in much of anything and he is grossly unfit to be considered for the position of president.

12 posted on 07/03/2008 4:23:30 PM PDT by Jim Scott (Time Heals)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Nuremberg trials were nothing more than Soviet style “show trials”?

Really?


13 posted on 07/03/2008 4:30:57 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: Jim Scott

Obama: Empty suit in WET PAPER BAG. Can’t punch his way out of either, without a teleprompter.


14 posted on 07/03/2008 4:46:49 PM PDT by Invictus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Senator Barack Obama really doesn't know what he's talking about, does he?

No. Though I make a point not ever to underestimate or disparage potentially dangerous enemies, in this case I seriously think Obama is a half-baked, manufactured, hothouse affirmative action moron--the archetype of late 20th century Ivy League parodies of themselves-- in the mold of Jean Francois Kerrie and the redoubtable Algore. The left apparently has an unending supply of these androids.

15 posted on 07/03/2008 4:47:22 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Argus
If only McCain would punch democrats as hard as he punches Conservatives and other Americans.

The gloves came off when he confronted the North Carolina GOP, but he is acting like a wimp with the Stalinists in Obama's camp.

Fight the evil b@st@rds, McCain!

Quit being such a baby!!!

16 posted on 07/03/2008 4:52:38 PM PDT by Prole (Pray for the families of Chris and Channon.)
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